mobtownblues Blog

Category Archives: Unsung Baltimore

Stories and pictures from the Greatest City in America.

Not your grandma’s aspic: lunch at the Women’s Industrial Exchange

By mobtownblues | February 10th, 2012

Tomato aspic is the polyester pants of American cooking. Once ubiquitous in American homes, especially in the South, the jiggly crimson mass of gelled vegetable matter has become a culinary punchline, an object of contempt and revulsion, a symbol of everything wrong with postwar, middle-class values, much like those madras polyester pants my dad used [...]

Also posted in Mobtownblues | 1 Comment

Kalima Young: My Origins as a Retcon

By mobtownblues | December 27th, 2011

Activist, advocate, filmmaker, and Unsung Baltimorean emerita Kalima Young told the following story at the debut of Full Circle Storytelling on December 13, 2011. It’s a funny and incisive illustration of the different ways we talk about ourselves to others. Also, she is a superhero. – Quev ~~~ My Origins as a Retcon Retcon- Retroactive [...]

Also posted in Full Circle, Mobtownblues | Tagged Full Circle, Kalima Young, story, storytelling, unsung Baltimorean | Leave a comment

Honoring the dead, caring for the living

By mobtownblues | December 22nd, 2011

As I approached the lectern to recite the names of the dead, I felt like a fraud. But that’s not important. What’s important is that last year, 114 homeless or formerly homeless people died in Baltimore. Each year on the winter solstice – the longest night of the year – Healthcare for the Homeless (HCH) [...]

Also posted in Mobtownblues | Tagged ceremony, homelessness, Inner Harbor, winter | Leave a comment

Walbrook Film Project Teaches Students About More Than Holding a Camera

By mobtownblues | April 8th, 2011

Filmmaker and volunteer instructor Josef Sawyer addresses the audience. Arts, community, violence, conflict resolution, history, memory: these were some of the topics explored in three short films by 10 young artists whose work was screened yesterday afternoon at the Walbrook Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.The films were part of the Walbrook Project, a [...]

Also posted in Mobtownblues, Nonprofit Thoughts | Tagged art, film, Ignite Baltimore, Ignition Grant, neighborhoods, older adults, race, Unsung Baltimoreans, Walbrook, young people | 2 Comments

And the hits keep comin’.

By mobtownblues | March 14th, 2011

For those of you playing along at home, I thought it worth mentioning that within the past six months, Unsung Baltimorean Lily Susskind: 1) not only received an Ignite Baltimore Ignition Grant; AND 2) won a Baker Foundation “b” award; BUT ALSO3) was featured on the cover of last week’s B Daily as one of [...]

Also posted in Mobtownblues | Tagged art, Baker Artist Awards, dance, Featured Unsung Baltimorean, Unsung Baltimoreans | 1 Comment

Sarah Gorman

By mobtownblues | March 9th, 2011

Artistic portrayals of suburban alienation – even those that involve reanimated corpses – are not exactly new. Depictions of zombies as metaphors for social disconnection, from ‘Dawn of the Dead’ to ‘Shaun of the Dead,’ comprise a sub-genre unto themselves. However, few dramatic productions to date have mapped the intersection of narcotized suburbanites, disaffected teens, [...]

Also posted in Mobtownblues | Tagged art, culture, events, Featured Unsung Baltimorean, Station North, theater, Unsung Baltimoreans | Leave a comment

Kalima Young

By mobtownblues | March 7th, 2011

Kalima Young’s work is all about making connections. Whether in her former role as director of an adolescent AIDS program, or in her current ones as filmmaker, college professor, and education advocate, Young delights in connecting people and causes that typically haven’t been brought together before. Young herself puts it more succinctly: “I love getting [...]

Also posted in Mobtownblues | Tagged Featured Unsung Baltimorean, LGBTQ, race, social justice, Unsung Baltimoreans, women, young people | 2 Comments

Sweaty, delirious, and sublime

By mobtownblues | March 4th, 2011

If you missed Dance Round Robin last weekend, I feel sorry for you. It was an exhilarating, innovative, and occasionally naked evening of modern dance, from the Fly-Girls-on-crack awesomeness of the Effervescent Collective to the death-defying head spins of the International Flow Syndicate. I didn’t do a head count, but it seemed like well over [...]

Also posted in Mobtownblues | Tagged art, dance, events, Featured Unsung Baltimorean, pics, Station North | Leave a comment

This Weekend: Dance Round Robin!

By mobtownblues | February 25th, 2011

Baltimore has a growing, dynamic dance scene, and past Unsung Baltimorean Lily Susskind is one of its poobahs. This weekend, she and choreographer Caroline Marcantoni will showcase some of the face-meltingest modern, experimental, and hip-hop dance moves this city has to offer. What: The Baltimore Dance Round Robin When: Feb. 26 – 27. Doors at [...]

Also posted in Mobtownblues | Tagged art, dance, events, Featured Unsung Baltimorean, Station North | Leave a comment